Hanoi to Siem Reap

• Finished packing, because I had fallen asleep while doing it the night before.
• Ron called before I went down to breakfast. Said he found the 20 I had snuck into his car door and he wanted to return it.
• We went and got coffee (ca phe sua nong) after breakfast on a balcony by a big intersection on the north side of Hoàn Kiêm lake (pronounced like "Juan Kim") and watched the traffic.
• He had a meeting to get to, so he drove me over to the one-pillar pagoda and I walked back to the hotel from there. Turns out it was right behind the Ho Chi Minh Mauseloum, but due to whatever special event there was I hadn't been able to walk that way when I tried before. Today they let me walk right to it.
• On the way back I stopped to snap a couple of quick shots of the US planes on display (captured during the war).
• Went back to hotel and took a 30m break to check email and relax while waiting for the driver to come to the hotel.
• Driver was there when I came down, and again it was 2 people (car driver + English-speaking guide). They just talked with each other for most of the ride, but then the guide made a bit of small talk about my trip.
• The airport was EMPTY. Wow. No wonder they had me leave later than the original time of 11:00. I was at my gate by 12:30 for my 3:10 flight (0 other people there). When I checked in, they had designated 4-5 check-in booths PER FLIGHT, so they already know where you're going based on the counter you walk up to.
• The check-in staff let me bring both pieces of luggage, even with the microspikes in the larger bag. Something I though was odd: they had already printed all the boarding passes and asked if I wanted window or aisle, then hand-wrote my name in on the boarding pass with that seat number.
•  
• Flight wasn't super full, but my row was shared with a Russian couple
• Lunch was 3 different kinds of mystery meat + 1 olive + 1 cherry tomato + a slice of cake and the bread roll all airline meals seem to have.
• Got to Siem Reap airport and walked down stairs to the tarmac. Airport worker led us to the customs entrance.
• Apparently Americans do need a visa in Cambodia, but the reason I hadn't known about it is because they want you to do it upon arrival. Hidden $30 charge there...
• Immigration was also really not happy with the photo I tried to give them. The officer looked like she was going to blow a gasket before I pulled out the sheet of glossy pictures my dad printed the night before I left (good thing I didn't rely on the normal paper ones!)
• Same situation here as in Hanoi: a man had my name on a sign and when we met up he called his driver to pull the car around. The 3 of us went for ~15 mins to get to the hotel.
• The guide's English is really good! I asked if he had just learned from primary school and he said he's been a tour guide for 20 years and learned it from that. Before that he worked in a hotel so that also helped.
• He told me about how Cambodia is very corrupt because the Provential Governor owns a bunch of their hotels. Cambodia is still very poor, but the politicians are billionaires (he mentioned a couple times that Obama did not get along with the ruler in Cambodia, but their king really likes Trump) and the entire economy in Siem Reap is tourism. The ATMs give USD and all prices assume you're paying with that currency instead of the Riel.
• He also told me about how his dad died in the Vietnam War when he was 3 so he never knew his dad's face. He has 3 kids, and his oldest is 16 but probably won't go to university because he can't afford to send him. He asked about how I could afford an education and I told him the American Government gives loans. He said the Cambodian dictator would never allow something like that.
• This guide is apparently also my guide for the half-day Tonle Sap Lake tour I'm doing day after tomorrow. I assume part of his reason for telling me about his life was driven by a hope that I would be persuaded to tip, but I didn't feel comfortable pulling out my money-belt in front of anyone else. I'll just give him a little more when I see him at the tour.
• Apparently my booking never came through on my hotel, so there was some confusion when I showed up with a confirmation in-hand. They are letting me stay 1 night while they try making contact with GTA (the booking agency). Because of the time difference, nobody in America will pick up, and for some reason the Cambodian number wasn't working either. The guy at reception took my confirmation page and walked out the front door which confused me for a few minutes, but when he came back it was explained to me that my hotel is one of 2 owned by the same company, so they were making sure my name wasn't actually confirmed for that location instead.
• The restaurant, pool, and spa are in the other building (across the street).
• The hotel is in the middle of downtown, which is a bar/hotel/restaurant area (obviously built up just for the tourists). My tour guide had no recommendations for restaurants to give because he says these are geared for tourists so he hasn't been to them (and that he can't afford to eat out anyway).
• Both the tour guide and the porter kept asking me if I like to drink, and telling me to go to the bars (which close at 12 here). "It is 100% safe!"
• The porter also made a note to show me that they have massage therapists that will come to my room until 11pm for only $12. K...I think I understand where this is going.
• Now I'm in the hotel room taking some time to catch up on the photos I've taken the last few days. I'm not very hungry, so I might just skip dinner and sleep early to be sure I wake up in time for breakfast (6-8). My Angkor Wat/Angkor Thom tour starts at 8am tomorrow!